Sri Lankans and many other civilizations celebrate Zodiac New Year when the Sun transverse from Pisces to Aries in mid April with many customs. Some are common to few groups while some remain unique to individuals. South and South East Asia which got the Monsoon weather pattern sow their seeds in late October (Maha Kanna) after the Monsoon sets in, and reap the crop in March. All civilizations celebrate good harvests with festivals and feasting. Good way to consume the extra food that they can’t store safely. The northern countries celebrate this in October / November which is their harvesting period, as they have to sow in April after the winter and reap in late September / early October. The Americans have their Thanks Giving Day while the Germans go to town with Octofest (October Feast). I think that Sinhala New Year is, but another harvesting festival. If the zodiac reason was not in April the South / South East Asian countries would have created another day in the same period to celebrate their harvest.

Convict referred to western civilizations (Suddas) having their festivals in December. Yes there were many festivals celebrated in December by western civilizations in the pre Christian era. The pagan Scandinavian countries had the winter festival “Yule” in late December / early January in honor of god “Thor”. The Germans celebrated a mid winter festival called “Wild Night” which lasted for 12 days in December. Italians celebrated “Saturnalia” in honor of Saturn on December 17th for 5 to 7 days. The Romans celebrated The Birth of the un-conquered Sun (Not Son) on December 25th. When the reigning Roman Emperor embraced Christianity and declared it the State Religion over night, the common Romans still went on celebrating the Feast of the Birth of Sun. As the church authorities couldn’t suppress this festival, they did the next best thing. Absorbed it to their religion as the Festival of the birth of Jesus (The Son). When Christianity spread to Europe it absorbed most of early pagan feasts in December and the customs associated with them and now we have this mammoth feast “Christmas”. Its origins had nothing to do with Jesus’ birth.